Dyche remains hopeful as the transfer deadline approaches

Dan Black

Burnley boss Sean Dyche remains hopeful of adding to his squad with time running out in the transfer window.

A deal for Norwich City’s Robbie Brady, an international team-mate of record signing Jeff Hendrick and full back Stephen Ward, is rumoured to be close, with the Canaries set to announce the arrival of Ajax left back Mitchell Dijks, while Hull City’s Andrew Robertson is the latest name to be linked.

The window slams shut at 11 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday), shortly after the Clarets host Premier League champions Leicester City at Turf Moor.

“They are just the same as they were,” he said. “There’s a couple of situations which we hope will open and get done but there’s no guarantees of course.

“There’s a lot of players that we’re interested in, we’ll wait and see if we get any of them over the line.”

With Patrick Bamford having returned to Chelsea, subsequently signing for Middlesbrough, following his loan spell at the club, Dyche also confirmed that the addition of another striker is a possibility.

With the Clarets reliant on the fitness of Andre Gray, Sam Vokes, Ashley Barnes and Dan Agyei, who has returned from a temporary spell at Coventry City, Dyche said: “We’re still looking, there are a couple of options available possibly, and we’ve got our own in-house with Dan Agyei.

“We’ve kept him here on the possible proviso that he stays with us. He might do. We’ll wait and see what the next 24 hours or so bring. That’s our decision is that one so we’ll deal with it accordingly.”

Asked if they have enough firepower with the numbers available, Dyche added: “It’s possible, we have been more flexible with that. Four if you’re constantly a 4-4-2 can be as important as front pairings if you like but with us being more flexible this year with the 4-5-1 as well you can adapt that differently, even with Barnesy going out wide which he’s done before. He can play like a half-left of a three. We’re pretty flexible with our thinking with those three and I’ve enjoyed watching them play.”

Deadline day could prove to be a hectic one for Dyche, with business dealings potentially going right down to the wire, but the one-time defender declared that the focus is on preparing for the arrival of the Foxes.

“I’m more interested in getting the team prepared for the Leicester game, that’s the key thing,” he said. “The first interest is that, we’ll be getting the players ready and then after that we’ll pick up on any situations that might be arising.

“I don’t know how that gets decided (playing on deadline day”, I don’t know who made the decision on that but it is a bit of a strange one when a lot of teams are active tomorrow.

“That’s the way it is. We’ll try and do our business, we’ve been trying to do it for a long time, it’s not always easy as we’ve known before. We’ll see how the rest of the day pans out.”